The Psyche Spacecraft Passed 2,864 Miles From Mars On May 15, Capturing Craters, The South Polar Ice Cap And Huygens Crater While Testing All Science Instruments
According to Phys.org, NASA has released science data and a time-lapse video from the Psyche spacecraft’s Mars flyby on May 15, 2026; two months after the spacecraft flew just 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometres) from the Martian surface, using the planet’s gravity to gain approximately 1,000 miles per hour of speed and tilt its orbital plane by one degree, putting it on a direct course for the metal-rich asteroid Psyche.
The multispectral imager captured detailed views of windblown craters, the south polar ice cap, and the large double-ringed Huygens crater across a monthlong flyby sequence. Engineers are now using thousands of Mars observations to refine the imaging and navigation techniques needed to orbit the asteroid in 2029.
The gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer; built in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, also performed its first measurements of a planetary surface in 2.6 years of deep-space travel. Though the 2,864-mile altitude was too distant to detect gamma rays from Mars, the instrument successfully captured neutron emissions and validated its performance under dynamic flight conditions.
“This gravity assist was years in the making, and the navigation team nailed it. Psyche flew by Mars on exactly the trajectory we needed to set us on a path to rendezvous with the asteroid in the summer of 2029,” said Bob Mase, Psyche’s project manager. The spacecraft is now headed directly for the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter for its 2029 arrival. NASA
Psyche is one of the most unusual objects in the solar system; a metal-rich body in the asteroid belt that may be the exposed iron-nickel core of an early planet that lost its rocky mantle through ancient collisions. If confirmed, it would give scientists their first direct look at what lies beneath the crust of a terrestrial planet.
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